Orientation

The orientation of your house (east/south/west) must be measured accurately in order to obtain maximum benefit from solar heating.  These days, deviations towards east or west have no influence on purchasing a solar system.  Using the example below, you can easily see that only a little more collector surface is required to compensate for an eastern or western orientation.

Example:  You want to install a solar heating system on your roof.  The roof has a pitch of 30 degrees and is oriented 45 degrees to the west.  Your line is the dark blue one.  Find the 45 degree deviation from the south to the west on the east/west axis (X axis) and draw a line from the 45 degree point up to the dark blue line.  From this point, go straight to the left horizontally until you come to percent annual yield.  In this case, the annual yield is 88%; this means that your system yields 88% of the possible 100% that an optimal southern location has.  You only require 12% more collector area to achieve 100%.   According to the calculation for the optimal southern orientation, if you need 20 metres square of collector surface, you will need to install 12% (2.4 metre square) more collector area due to your western orientation.

IHS supply a range of TiSUN products and systems.  Manufactured in Tirol, Austria by one of the leading solar manufacturers in Europe, the brand is renowned for its robustness and durability.